𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝙻𝚒𝚏𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 ✓ (𝟷𝟾+)

The Hospital Proposition

Roger

What happened to me?

One minute I was talking to the guests and in another, I remember coiling my fist, punching Brandon.

God! How did this happen?

I remember when he waltzed in like the party was thrown in his honor. He never even bothered listening to Charles who asked him to leave. Brandon had come to create a scene and was successful in riling me up.

I turned around and with my hazed vision watched the crowd disappear. They moved back, miles away from me. I stood in the circle when the emergency came and rolled away that bleeding man. I don't remember anything else, only the tingling sensation over my knuckles.

I only recalibrated my surroundings when Arin's words hit me. Her soft tone brought me back into reality. I didn't have a reply for her "What happened."

The only words that escaped were my deadbeat father's name.

Arin held my hand and moved me to a corner. Her icy cold hands held my face, making me focus on her. I was spinning out, unable to understand how and what happened.

"Roger," she rattled me.

Slowly, her face emerged clearly from the haze that was before. As the smoke that veiled before my eyes lifted, | realized what may have happened.

"Brandon came. I...I don't...remember." I stuttered, unable to explain the takeover my brain had, upon seeing that man.

She held my bleeding knuckle, scanning it from every possible angle. The party was already over. Charles had to ask all our guests to move out.

Remorse rose in me, I realized the party was a disaster because I couldn't control my anger. A part of me wanted to do it all over again, beat up Brandon for what he said to me but I wasn't thinking straight to begin with.

Charles moved back to us after seeing off the guests. His face whispered concern. Of course, it would. How would a father feel, letting his daughter be with a man who beat his own father?

Arin turned to Charles. She moved him away from me, whispering.

The empty halls resonated with her voice.

"Did you see what happened?" she asked.

"No clue, kiddo. I was talking to some people and then Brandon entered. After asking him politely, he was unwilling to go so I moved on to call security. That's when..."

Charles' voice wavered as he relived the nightmare he witnessed. Arin nodded at him before moving back to my side. The help had already provided the first aid kid. A doctor was on the way too. Arin knelt before me, smiling. She cleaned my wound and checked my hand, top to bottom.

I felt a surge of devotion towards her which couldn't be expressed through words. "I am sorry, Arin."

"For what?" she questioned. Her eyes remained glued over the injured area, carefully wrapping a band-aid over it.

"For ruining this," I said. She looked up with her eyes narrowing at me.

"He ruined it," she pointed into the air with a stern voice. "Brandon did this. Not you."

The doctor had arrived sooner than expected. He checked my injuries and prescribed painkillers before being escorted out by Charles.

"Do you remember what happened?" Arin's crinkled forehead matched her scared voice. She was worrying for me.

"Not exactly, babydoll. I remember in flashes."

Sighing she fell next to me. Tucking her head over my shoulder, she waited for the medicines before saying goodbye to Charles and driving us home.